Do Non-state Education Legislative Frameworks in Arab States  Adequately Address Equitable Participation in Education?

• In Event: Towards a transformation in teaching and schooling: Movements from the Middle East

Proposal

Non-state education provision dominates the education sector in various countries, including those across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) (Verger et al. 2016). In fact, the rise of private education institutions has been evident in middle-income and high-income Arab states since the 1990s (Romagnoli and Mengoni 2013), complimenting or providing an alternative to state education. Moreover, since 2015, the MENA region has witnessed an annual growth rate of 20 percent in the private education sector (Zawya 2021). Despite these numbers, as evidenced by the growth in the number of laws, regulations, and ministerial decrees released over the past two decades to monitor this sector, little progress has been made to measure equitable access to education within private education legislation specifically. Furthermore, while several studies have discussed the expansion in private education amongst Arab states (Ridge et al. 2016; Abdelkhalek and Langsten 2019), little literature exists on the extent to which non-state education legislation protects vulnerable individuals in particular, including people with disabilities’ right to education.



In light of this, this research seeks to evaluate major trends in equitable non-state education legislation in middle-income and high-income Arab states. Utilizing a comparative review and document analysis of existing legislative sources including laws, policies, and conventions from Arab countries, the preliminary findings demonstrate several noticeable trends. For example, the laws in question do not sufficiently regulate the inclusion of certain categories of marginalized individuals in education, including refugees, ethnic minorities, and individuals who are financially disadvantaged. However, legislative frameworks in most countries do place greater emphasis on the protection of the rights of students with disabilities, particularly in basic education, in accordance with each state’s compulsory education requirements. We find that across the Arab states, the approaches to governance and regulation of non-state education reveal a tension between protecting national values and priorities while allowing and incentivizing the adoption of international best practices. The study informs the literature on existing gaps in the legal framework and the need for greater protective and inclusive measures in private education legislation, both from early childhood through higher education, to uphold the promise of equal opportunities for all in education.



Bibliography

Abdelkhalek, Fatma, and Ray Langsten. 2019. “Track and Sector in Egyptian Higher Education: Who Studies Where and Why?” Forum for International Research in Education 6, no. 2: 45-70.

Ridge, Natasha, Soha Shami, and Susan Kippels. 2016. “Private Education in the Absence of a Public Option: The Cases of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.” Forum for International Research in Education 3, no. 2: 41-59.

Romagnoli, Alessandro, and Luisa Mengoni. 2013. The Economic Development Process in the Middle East and North Africa. London: Routledge.

Verger, Antoni, Clara Fontdevila, Adrián Zancajo, Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Eds. 2016. The Privatization of Education: A Political Economy of Global Education Reform. New York: Teachers College Press.

Zawya. 2021. “UAE’s International School Market is Largest in the World.” Zawya, September 12, 2021. https://www.zawya.com/en/business/uaes-international-school-market-is-largest-in-the-world-clsqoqbc.

Author

• Janaan O Farhat, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research